The Swedish/Finnish palaeontologist Björn Kurtén did not create the literary genre 'palaeofiction', but he was certainly one of the better writers of it. As Stephen Jay Gould said in his introduction to Kurtén's 1980 novel 'Dance of the tiger' (first published in Swedish as 'Den Svarta Tigern' in 1978), well-informed fictional accounts are often equally as valid as the 'Just So' stories created by evolutionary biologists. By presenting such stories in a fictional setting, however, their speculative status is made clear. Could such fiction, on screen as well as in print, have a valid role in education?
Shortly after the discovery of the first Neanderthal remains the Neanderthals became popular subjects for fiction. Often they were wrongly portrayed as stooped, brutish creatures of low intelligence - due in part to a flawed interpretation of early fossil evidence which has coloured popular perception of Neanderthal man ever since.
Sympathetic literary portrayals of Neanderthals have also been common, however, as in the novel 'The Inheritors' by Nobel Prize-winner William Golding or the more serious treatment by palaeontologist Björn Kurtén. Kurtén's novel challenges the reader to speculate about possible reasons for the Neanderthal's extinction, with clues to three possibilities scattered throughout the text. At the end of the story, Kurtén reveals the answers, as well as the research findings that inspired several aspects of the tale.
Although Kurtén's 1978 work pre-dates modern molecular studies, it highlights a possible method of teaching students about evolutionary processes in an entertaining manner.
'Dance of the tiger' by Björn Kurtén (1980) University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN: 0 520 20277 5.
Palaeofiction and palaeofact
The Swedish/Finnish palaeontologist Björn Kurtén did not create the literary genre 'palaeofiction', but he was certainly one of the better writers of it. As Stephen Jay Gould said in his introduction to Kurtén's 1980 novel 'Dance of the tiger' (first published in Swedish as 'Den Svarta Tigern' in 1978), well-informed fictional accounts are often equally as valid as the 'Just So' stories created by evolutionary biologists. By presenting such stories in a fictional setting, however, their speculative status is made clear. Could such fiction, on screen as well as in print, have a valid role in education?
Shortly after the discovery of the first Neanderthal remains the Neanderthals became popular subjects for fiction. Often they were wrongly portrayed as stooped, brutish creatures of low intelligence - due in part to a flawed interpretation of early fossil evidence which has coloured popular perception of Neanderthal man ever since.
Sympathetic literary portrayals of Neanderthals have also been common, however, as in the novel 'The Inheritors' by Nobel Prize-winner William Golding or the more serious treatment by palaeontologist Björn Kurtén. Kurtén's novel challenges the reader to speculate about possible reasons for the Neanderthal's extinction, with clues to three possibilities scattered throughout the text. At the end of the story, Kurtén reveals the answers, as well as the research findings that inspired several aspects of the tale.
Although Kurtén's 1978 work pre-dates modern molecular studies, it highlights a possible method of teaching students about evolutionary processes in an entertaining manner.
'Dance of the tiger' by Björn Kurtén (1980) University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN: 0 520 20277 5.